ROOK

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rook mean? 

• ROOK (noun)
  The noun ROOK has 2 senses:

1. (chess) the piece that can move any number of unoccupied squares in a direction parallel to the sides of the chessboard

2. common gregarious Old World bird about the size and color of the American crow

  Familiarity information: ROOK used as a noun is rare.

• ROOK (verb)
  The verb ROOK has 1 sense:

1. deprive of by deceit

  Familiarity information: ROOK used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ROOK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(chess) the piece that can move any number of unoccupied squares in a direction parallel to the sides of the chessboard

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

castle; rook

Hypernyms ("rook" is a kind of...):

chess piece; chessman (any of 16 white and 16 black pieces used in playing the game of chess)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Common gregarious Old World bird about the size and color of the American crow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Corvus frugilegus; rook

Hypernyms ("rook" is a kind of...):

corvine bird (birds of the crow family)

Holonyms ("rook" is a member of...):

Corvus; genus Corvus (type genus of the Corvidae: crows and ravens)

• ROOK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they rook    ... he / she / it rooks   
Past simple: rooked   
Past participle: rooked   
-ing form: rooking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deprive of by deceit

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

bunco; con; defraud; diddle; goldbrick; hornswoggle; mulct; nobble; rook; scam; short-change; swindle; victimize

Context example:

She defrauded the customers who trusted her

Hypernyms (to "rook" is one way to...):

cheat; chisel; rip off (deprive somebody of something by deceit)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "rook"):

short; short-change (cheat someone by not returning him enough money)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP

Sentence example:

They rook him of all his money

 Context examples 

“The rooks—what has become of them?” asked Miss Betsey.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By St. Ives! if we come not quickly to some counsel we shall be burned like young rooks in a nest.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And now I can recall the picture of the grey old house of God rising calm before me, of a rook wheeling round the steeple, of a ruddy morning sky beyond.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

So here we are, installed in this beautiful old house, and from both my bedroom and the drawing-room I can see the great elms of the cathedral close, with their great black stems standing out against the old yellow stone of the cathedral and I can hear the rooks overhead cawing and cawing and chattering and gossiping all day, after the manner of rooks—and humans.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“David Copperfield from head to foot! Calls a house a rookery when there's not a rook near it, and takes the birds on trust, because he sees the nests!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The rooks cawed, and blither birds sang; but nothing was so merry or so musical as my own rejoicing heart.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And there was no settlement of the little property—the house and garden—the what's-its-name Rookery without any rooks in it—upon her boy?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was yet enjoying the calm prospect and pleasant fresh air, yet listening with delight to the cawing of the rooks, yet surveying the wide, hoary front of the hall, and thinking what a great place it was for one lonely little dame like Mrs. Fairfax to inhabit, when that lady appeared at the door.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“When he bought the house, he liked to think that there were rooks about it.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The ragged nests, so long deserted by the rooks, were gone; and the trees were lopped and topped out of their remembered shapes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)